Thursday, March 28, 2024

Fun With Drains

Hubby Tony was cleaning up after dinner tonight. Somehow, a small glass ramekin got stuck in the drain on the garbage disposal side of the double sink and was so firmly implanted that water couldn't go down the drain.

He tried to wedge the ramekin out with his fingers and then an ice tongs. No luck. Plunging the drain lifted the ramekin just enough for the excess water to go down but didn't do anything else.

I tried using the plunger on the opposite sink, thinking that forcing air through the trap would loosen the ramekin. It moved a little bit but then settled right back into place. I tried again with Tony waiting to grab the ramekin, but it didn't raise up enough to give him something to hold onto. We tried putting some water into the opposite drain, but that didn't make much difference.

Finally, we scooped out all of the excess water in the sink and filled the ramekin with ice. A couple of minutes later I added water on the opposite side and plunged. The cold had contracted the glass enough that the ramekin popped up! Tony was caught off guard, but when we repeated the process a second time he was able to catch it with both hands.

Five years ago today: The Best Thing Since Sliced...Bagels?

12 comments:

  1. I had to look up ramekin. I'd never heard that word before.

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    1. I think it's a much cooler word than custard cup.

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  2. My goodness you two were persistent. I would have called the plumber.

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    1. I'm sure that would have been our last option, but given that it would take who knows how long for a plumber to come out and the stuck ramekin made the sink unusable I'm glad we didn't have to.

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  3. Scientific solution. Have you tried holding the sink upside down and let gravity do its work?

    God bless.

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    1. I hope there's not a next time, but will keep your suggestion handy just in case :-)

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  4. I had a similar experience myself. I was washing the parts of the burners on my stove and the flat metal disk that sits atop the burner section loged into the drain. It was the perfect size to fit it and I could not get it out. I tried a thin knife around the edge trying to lift a side I tried soap around the edge, nothing was working. It finally dawned on me that it was metal so I grabbed a magnet and once I set it on top it lifted straight out.

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    1. Leslie, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! Thank goodness you had a magnet handy.

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  5. That made me laugh. I could just picture you both!

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    1. I'm sure we were quite the pair. If either of us had a third hand we could have done a video.

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